September 13: Our unplanned, but totally needed zero day. We slept in until 7am and took the oh-so-nice morning shower. Then we went downstairs to eat breakfast. At breakfast, we saw Professor, Peaches, Mother Teresa. We saw Whistler and Strawberry Donut, who we hadn't seen since Pennsylvania. They summited on Sept 12 and were looking forward to buying new clothes before their flight back to Germany. The bunch of us were talking with some other hotel guests who had never heard of thru-hiking. We were like a bunch of celebrities.
After breakfast, we walked over to Baxter State Park Headquarters to see about getting parking permits for tomorrow, but found that they were all gone. Between the weekend and the festival this weekend (End of Trail Days) the park had reached its limit. We would have to get dropped off at the entrance and hitch to the trail head.
Then we took some time to clean our gear, throw away things we didn't need any more (it seemed so wrong to throw away zip lock bags that we could rinse out and use for a couple more weeks!) and get slack packs ready for tomorrow. And check to see if our tents were dry.
We went over to the Appalachian Cafe for lunch, where we bumped into Barbarosa, Dip-n-Sip, and Newton. There was a ceiling tile that you could sign if you had complete your thru-hike. We figured we'd sign it now when we had time so we could head home sooner tomorrow. No dice. They would not let us sign until we had touched that Katahdin sign. The cafe also had a sundae for sale: Summit Sundae -- 14 scoops of ice cream (one scoop for every state in the AT), hot fudge, whipped cream, sprinkles, a banana, M&Ms, a snickers bar, and a donut. I didn't even think about attempting it.
Back at the hotel, we made use of the hot tub and stretched our sore muscles out before going back upstairs for a nap. Dinner was at a closer restaurant and to bed early for an early start tomorrow.
After breakfast, we walked over to Baxter State Park Headquarters to see about getting parking permits for tomorrow, but found that they were all gone. Between the weekend and the festival this weekend (End of Trail Days) the park had reached its limit. We would have to get dropped off at the entrance and hitch to the trail head.
Then we took some time to clean our gear, throw away things we didn't need any more (it seemed so wrong to throw away zip lock bags that we could rinse out and use for a couple more weeks!) and get slack packs ready for tomorrow. And check to see if our tents were dry.
We went over to the Appalachian Cafe for lunch, where we bumped into Barbarosa, Dip-n-Sip, and Newton. There was a ceiling tile that you could sign if you had complete your thru-hike. We figured we'd sign it now when we had time so we could head home sooner tomorrow. No dice. They would not let us sign until we had touched that Katahdin sign. The cafe also had a sundae for sale: Summit Sundae -- 14 scoops of ice cream (one scoop for every state in the AT), hot fudge, whipped cream, sprinkles, a banana, M&Ms, a snickers bar, and a donut. I didn't even think about attempting it.
Back at the hotel, we made use of the hot tub and stretched our sore muscles out before going back upstairs for a nap. Dinner was at a closer restaurant and to bed early for an early start tomorrow.
RSS Feed
